Hey everyone. I’ve been wanting to make this post since last November, but I just never got around to it until now. Anyway, I’m big on DIY, and it’s a lot of fun to apply that to making a non-professional yet more than decent setup for a home theater.

The finished theater

360° video tour in theater mode (sorry for the loud breathing.. 😅)

[Video/audio sample]https://imgur.com/a/oha1Bff)

Putting it together. Picture 13 shows the original position of the power strip; it’s since been moved to the other side for better convenience. Picture 18 is a close up of the original projector mount I had built for my Epson before realizing I wanted to upgrade. Upgraded mount photos are later in the post.

Speaking of, here is the projector mount I built for the Sony: https://imgur.com/a/Rz1MuiR

This is my second home theater I’ve built for myself. My first one can be found here.

Some of the equipment is new, some of it is old. The upgrades are as follows:

I upgraded my projector from the Epson Home Cinema 2100 to the Sony VPL VW295-ES. I got it used off eBay for close to half the retail price after tax and shipping. I’m quite happy with it.

I swapped my old active rears with a couple passive cube speakers.

I also massively upgraded my receiver to an actual receiver, the Denon AVR-S760H (you can tell the clear advantage over the last “receiver” I used). But because this is an actual receiver and has ‘speaker outs’ instead of ‘line outs,’ I had to utilize a speaker—>in line converter to get my fronts to work (they were speakers I already had).

One big upgrade from my last setup was getting an actual screen lol. My last place had a massive white wall, so I was able to get a 165” picture at no additional cost. For this setup, I got an open box SilverTicket 135” off eBay. I’m very satisfied with it.

I wanted to add a small bit a flair to the setup, so I added two Govee LED Towers. They sync to music as well, which is nice.

Another upgrade I made to my setup this time around was adding Bass Shakers and a power amp for them. It (the amp) comes with a handy wired remote that can adjust the volume as well as remotely put them in standby. I got the shakers cuz I live in an apartment (bottom floor) and wanted to compensate for the subwoofer so that I could still experience solid low end, yet do so without bothering neighbors like they otherwise would be if I sought the same experience with the subwoofer alone. And trust me, these bass shakers fuckin shake. 😳 🤤 Here is a picture of the shakers: https://imgur.com/a/oCfg2vR

This setup made use of many curtains. They consist of oversized tablecloths and sheets cut and sewn in the arrangements seen in the links. The sheets probably totaled $100 in total and the seam work needed for it ran me $450 due to the large and tedious nature of the order. I needed basically every sheet cut to a different size and shape, and these were big sheets. But I’m happy with the end product, and the seamstress did an amazing job. The ceiling curtain (two sheets sewn into one) was originally going to be a bunch of black coroplast boards thumb-tacked up into the popcorn ceiling. Yeah, that idea didn’t last long lol. I eventually settled on tension wires (no one makes curtain rods 15’ long 😅) for both the ceiling curtain and the wall curtains.

I hid the subwoofer under this weird table thing I found by the dumpster the day I moved in. Ended up being the perfect piece to preliminarily set everything on, and it proved the perfect place for concealing the sub. I also attached a fixed point on that table thing for the main power strip for the whole thing. I figured it’d be convenient to have the power switch for it all located in a concealed-yet-easy-to-reach spot. And I love it tbh. Ordered a flat metal sheet and drilled holes in it for mounting. I lined the open space under the table with a custom cut from the sheet/tablecloth material and secured it in place with neodymium magnets that I painted back (keeps reflections to a minimum). It allows for the undercarriage, if you will, to be hidden away while the sub can still make its presence known.

Apartment came with hardwood floors (as seen in some of the photos), but I bought two 8’x11’ black shag rugs to give the living room “carpet.” Because of the color and shag nature, it’s luckily tough to tell where the two rugs meet, and that’s with the lights on. =)

I originally had a coffee table in front of the couch, but it got replaced with a black futon/daybed. It makes a nice and comfy footrest. But it can also double as a couch. Just pop the couch legs off and sit it on the floor, and boom: stadium seating. 😎

All the wiring is discretely ran to be out of sight wherever possible. I’m a sucker for appearances lol.

OH! I had planned to install and rope and pulley system for extending and retracting the ceiling curtain all from a central point and with little effort. https://imgur.com/a/VdOBUd8 Sadly, after I had already envisioned the proper setup, bought the materials, and did some mental gymnastics to run the rope through the right pulleys in the right order, I realized that there was an unfixable point of high stress along the pulley path (long story) and had to mix the whole system. =( Honestly sucks cuz I was quite happy about being able to make it work (unfortunately, I only have footage showing the setup and not showing it in action; it didn’t cross my mind at the time to film it in motion. Bonehead move on my part..). It would’ve been a quick and easy way to move the ceiling curtain which otherwise basically requires two people and some step ladders to retract. I just keep it up all the time; it’s not distracting like I thought it may be.

Anyway, I hope all of you like what I’ve done with my place. I put a lot of money and time into it, but I’m happy with the end result. You ever wanna stop by for movie night, just lemme know. 😄 Hope y’all have a good day!

-Will